Climate Change Threat to Alrosa
July 28, 20
(IDEX Online) - Climate change is threatening Russia's diamond trade, says a new report by the investment banking company Morgan Stanley.
Ninety per cent of the country's diamond reserves are produced in areas covered by a thick Arctic permafrost, which is rapidly melting.
"Climate change in permafrost areas . . . leads to the release of large amounts of methane and carbon dioxide, reduces soil stability and creates risks for infrastructure," says Vedomosti, the Russian-language business daily newspaper, quoting the report.
Arctic temperatures have risen between three and four times times the average global rate in the last 20 years.
Alrosa, the state-owned diamond miner, is said to be one of the companies that could be hardest hit, along with the energy corporation Gazprom, gas producer Novatek and nickel and palladium miner Norilsk Nickel.
Thirty per cent of Russia's oil and all of its palladium reserves are covered by the permafrost.
Pic shows Alrosa'a Mirny mine